Final Fantasy VII: Resurrection of the Roses
by Ariel Tsuki
Summary: (Warning for language) What happen to the world after Sephiroth was defeated? Clound and the gang will find out...


Final Fantasy VII: The Resurrection of the Roses  
  
One: The End, Part I  
  
Author's Notes: It's the revision, yay! After my no-Internet for two weeks oath was over I went straight back to work on this fanfic, however, it sucked ass after I read it over. Now I have a plot in mind, I can write a proper fic for everyone to enjoy. So enjoy.  
  
This is it, the final stroke. The fate of the world depends on this final play. It wasn't easy but after this, all our strife and sacrifices would pay off. Aeris' sacrifice would not be wasted. I look at Sephiroth, panting heavily and on the brink of death. At that moment, with my Ultima Sword raised, I felt an unexpected pang of sympathy. No, I felt full-blown sympathy for the man who is standing with the last of his strength. This man was once my idol. I briefly remember the times I used be awe at his presence; his existence gave me strength to try to be a SOLDIER like him. Now I only see his shadow of his former self, a man broken. Some of the things he done wasn't his fault; the fault was the ancient virus, Jenova and his father, Professor Hojo. For the first time, I realize, this, the whole Meteor shit, isn't Sephiroth's fault. I lower my sword a bit and look at him with remorse. I think I would do the same thing if I found out that I created to be a puppet earlier before Sephiroth did. Now I see the huge difference between me and Sephiroth, that Sephiroth has a very weak sense of self. The influence of Jenova didn't hit in until the time we stayed Nibelheim to check out that Mako Reactor. I guess reading about the reason of his existence had destroyed his self worth. I know that was the reason because it also happened to me. I was in the same situation once when I had failed to become a SOLDIER. I thought I was useless, but when I pretended the lies that me and Zack made, I felt whole.complete. The lies I had lived became reality to me, and those lies are partly responsible for the current dire situation the world is in now. *Sigh*  
  
Cloud drops his Ultima Sword on the rocky ground, making a clanging, like the sound of dropping a pan on the kitchen floor. The others stared at him, astonished at his current action as the echo of the sound goes through the darkness of the cave. "You are defeated, Sephiroth, you might as well surrender now." Cloud said in a firm voice.  
  
Sephiroth smiles. "What makes you think I'll give up."  
  
"Come on, even if you heal yourself, I still can defeat you with a Materia."  
  
"I'm not giving up. I cannot fail Mother. I have to make our dream come true."  
  
"Fuck, Sephiroth! She isn't your fucking mother!"  
  
Sephiroth stood silent as Cloud stares at him fuming. Then Sephiroth starts to laugh.  
  
"Nonsense. She IS my mother and we will accomplish our dream."  
  
"Sephiroth, listen. Jenova isn't your mother! She's just using you to accomplish her goals. She doesn't care for you like your real mother do. All she wants is to destroy this Planet and with everyone including you on it! Come on, Sephiroth, wake up from this illusion!"  
  
Sephiroth narrow his eyes at Cloud. "If you know so much, then tell me who my mother is."  
  
"Lucrecia.."  
  
Cloud and Sephiroth turn to the source of the voice, which was Vincent. Vincent lowers his Death Penalty. He lowers his head in shame.  
  
"Lucrecia was the one who gave birth with you, Sephiroth, she was the one who carried you for nine months and endured twelve hours of labor with you. She had suffered as much as you did, if not more. Lucrecia was so elated when she was carrying you, forgotten that she was supposed to think of it as a duty to science. The bastard Hojo had subjected her into doing many tests during the pregnancy with Mako. When you came to the world, they had taken you away from her while she was resting from the child labor. I still remember her cries to them to let her hold you. She suffered many years after that, always wanting you see Sephiroth, but they prevented her from seeing you."  
  
"And how did you know of this?"  
  
Vincent looks at him, straight in the eyes.  
  
"Because I was there, I was Lucrecia's love before Hojo convinced her to be with him."  
  
Then Sephiroth let out a scream of rage. "LIES! These are all lies! Well, I'm not going to fall for your lies. Jenova is my mother and I will accomplish mother's dream!"  
  
Cloud looks at Sephiroth sternly. "Sephiroth, if Jenova's your mother then why did she appear after when you stayed the Shinra Mansion for three days? Why haven't she appeared when you were born, taking care of you since then?"  
  
"It doesn't matter."  
  
"It does, and I know it. Don't you realize why Jenova is not controlling me now?"  
  
Sephiroth snickers. "Entertain me, Cloud."  
  
"Because I have a strong sense of self-worth. Before, I was living a lie to the point I thought it was real; I was vulnerable to Jenova then. When Tifa helped me to destroy the illusion, I had found a new sense of self-worth. I realized that I don't have to be a SOLDIER to impress Tifa. I realized she just wanted to see me, the Cloud she barely knew, again. I realized that never being a SOLDIER didn't mean I was less worthy as you or Zack. All I had to know that I tried to be one, and although I failed, I gave it my all and became a better person because of that. Sephiroth, you lost your self- worthiness when you read those documents in the mansion's library. That when Jenova called on you. Am I'm right?  
  
Sephiroth covers his head, vigorously shaking his head. "LIES! LIES! I'm not going to listen to these lies anymore!"  
  
Sephiroth raises his Masamune as he rushes to Cloud. It seems like one of those slow motion moments. Cloud knows that he can't reach the Ultima Sword in time, so he does the next best thing, use the Ultima Materia. The mist covers Sephiroth as the silver haired man screams in pain as he feels the mist sucking his life away, slowly destroying him.  
  
"Mother." And with that, he drops on the floor, blood running down his wounds.  
  
"Yatta! We defeated Sephiroth!" Yuffie says, jumping up and down in joy.  
  
Tifa puts a hand on Cloud's shoulder.  
  
"I feel so sorry for him, Tifa."  
  
"I know, I do too."  
  
Cid turns to the couple. "Come on, we defeated Sephiroth and I want to get the fuck outta of here."  
  
The two chuckled lightly at Cid's demand as they walk out of the grisly sight, holding hands.  
  
"They did it. Now the Planet is safe."  
  
"Aeris!"  
  
Aeris Gainsborough turns around and sees her mother, Ifalna, running towards her with a basket of flowers around one arm.  
  
Aeris giggles. "Mother, why on earth are you running?"  
  
Ifalna looks at Aeris with a serious face.  
  
"Something went wrong, Aeris."  
  
Aeris' smile vanishes as she put a very concerned face. "What is it?"  
  
"Meteor is still hovering over the Planet, it's going to hit the Earth any hour now. "  
  
Aeris looks at her mother in disbelief as she leans on the side of the Looking Well from the shock of the upsetting news. "All of that, the pain and the suffering we endured, wasted." Ifalna hugs her daughter and stokes her hair as she tries to comfort her.  
  
"All of my friends are going to die and there's nothing I can do."  
  
Aeris starts to cry as an idea enters Ifalna head. "There is one thing we can do." She says to her daughter.  
  
Aeris looks up to her mother with her hopeful tearstained face. "There is?"  
  
Iflana looks around her and took Aeris' hand in hand hers and put another hand of top of them. "If you want to save them, we must hurry to the Prayer Pedestal." With that the mother-daughter pair runs to the Pedestal in haste.  
  
In the North Crater, the gang are climbing on the wall to the opening of the meteor. As Yuffie, always the energetic one, made up to the top first. then she screams in horror. Cloud looks up as he climbs a little faster to reach Yuffie. As he finished his arduous task, look to Yuffie to find the source of the problem. "What's wrong?"  
  
Instead of an audible answer, Yuffie points to the sky. Cloud follows her finger and stares in shock; Meteor is still in the sky.  
  
"No." Cloud drops on his knees as his eyes are brimming with tears. It took all of his strength not to scream his life out of himself; however it couldn't prevent the dreaded feeling of anger and defeat. "This isn't fair. All the hellish things we been through and it was for nothing!" Cloud stood up and detached his Ultima Sword from his back and threw it over the cliff in a fit of anger. He looks at the sky. "What was all this effort for if we couldn't change a fucking thing!"  
  
With that last outburst, Cloud slumps his head. Tifa comes up to him and gives him a reassuring hug. "Cloud, listen to me. It was worth a try. I think about it. If you hadn't gone on this quest and found yourself, and Meteor came; you'll regret for not trying to save the Earth, even though the journey didn't start that way."  
  
Cloud puts his head on Tifa's shoulder and starts to sob. "But it shouldn't end this way."  
  
Tifa nods as she rubs Cloud's back in soft circles to calm him down. "I know, I'm disappointed too."  
  
Cid Highwind lights up a cigarette, takes a long drag, and exhales the smoke. "We might as well go on the Highwind and go home, there's nothing here for us to do here."  
  
The rest of the group nod as they head to the direction of the Highwind.  
  
Inside the darkness of the North Crater, a lady in a white lab coat nears the body of Sephiroth. She kneels next to the body and lays the bloodied head on her lap, her eyes rimmed with tears. "My baby.."  
  
She lifts Sephiroth's wrist to check for a pulse. "Oh thank you, God. He's still alive." Then she takes out a green Materia out of her lab coat's pocket. "Life!" then the green Materia glows as it magic surrounds Sephiroth. Sephiroth takes a sudden deep breath and opens his eyes halfway. He moans of the pain of the wounds of his body and looks up to the woman who healed him. "Who the hell are you?"  
  
"Shh. You're weak, I'm sorry that I didn't have my Restore Materia, I could've completely healed you."  
  
Sephiroth tries to lift up and finds out that he didn't have the strength to and lies back into the unknown woman's lap. "Why are you helping me? Don't you know who I am?"  
  
The woman pushes back a stray stand of silver hair from his face. "I know who you are because I'm your mother, Sephiroth."  
  
Sephiroth laughs. "Jenova is my mother. My one and only mother."  
  
Lucrecia looks at him with a sad face as she stoked his cheek. "Your only connection to Jenova was a few blood cells that your father had injected into you and nothing more. I'm your real mother, Sephiroth." She says sternly at her son.  
  
Sephiroth frowns. "There's no way you can be MY mother, you look too young to have a child my age."  
  
"The Mako cells kept me young. Please, Sephiroth, believe me. Shinra and your father damn well made sure that they kept us apart."  
  
"You're not my." Lucrecia covers Sephiroth's mouth with her small hand.  
  
"Shh. you'll realize the truth soon, but right now, can we just enjoy our last hours together? I know you don't want to die alone."  
  
"What in the hell you're talking about. I'm about to be a god."  
  
"Sleep!" Lucrecia cries as Sephiroth falls straight to sleep. Lucrecia stokes her son's silver hair as tears fall from her face and onto Sephiroth's.  
  
"I'm so sorry, my little one. I should've done something to prevent all of this. It's all my fault."  
  
  
  
"This is the end, isn't it?"  
  
Author's Notes II: Sorry for the revision to take so long. Now I have a plot in mind, expect the second part to come out soon when I get my laptop next week. Ja ne! 


End file.
